Book Hive

Get varied reading suggestions from real people. Join a community of passionate bookworms looking to discuss characters and unravel plot twists together.

BookHive ditches algorithms and allows users to get tailored book suggestions from fellow bookworms and friends. Whether you're looking for recommendations on a specific genre or author, or just need someone to discuss the latest plot twist with, BookHive has got you covered.

Accountability

Having a reading buddy is like having a cheerleader for your reading goals. They'll hold you accountable and give you the encouragement you need to stay committed !

Accountability

Motivation

Nothing beats the feeling of having a friend to share your love of books with ! You'll be more motivated to read, discuss, and enjoy a book together.

Motivation

New perspectives

Two heads are better than one. You might be surprised at the new ideas and fresh angles that reading buddies bring to the story.

New perspectives

Social connections

Build lasting connections with fellow readers based on a shared passion. The book doesn’t have to end when the pages do.

Social connections

Why a buddy read app?

As a bookworm myself, I wish I knew someone equally as interested as me in the books I read.

Just like with good TV series, when a good book comes to an end, or even during it, you naturally want to share your thoughts about it. Which is a difficult thing to do if you don’t know any other reader with similar tastes in your social circle. I recently discovered a book which reignited my love for reading with the different emotions I experienced during it. Though when I arrived at the end, I felt this urge to share my hype for the book with someone who would understand where I was coming from but I found myself alone.

That’s when I decided that I wanted to be part of a small book community so I created a Discord server where I have met many nice an fade-in from-bottomd interesting people. While we manage to make it work, the platform is not optimized for a virtual book club. So which one is ?

Suggestions are a bit all over the place !

After doing some research online and talking to members of the reading community, I’ve noticed that no one really refers to one platform when it comes to buddy reads. People try to meet reading buddies via other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Discord… Most book oriented apps offer recommendations for new books, latest releases, and a virtual library to track your books but they lack social features because it’s not their primary focus.

In short, there is room for improvement !

The main difficulties that people have are being in a different time zone, falling behind on the reading or on the contrary, finishing way ahead of the other person. And like I mentioned earlier, they don’t have a specific platform where to exchange so they have to go for other alternatives and make-do with what they can find.

Meeting fellow readers

The best place to get feedback is directly from the users.

I asked within my social circle who enjoys reading and if they knew other people who did. I had a few in-person conversations but I chose to do my interviews via text, this way I automatically had a transcript and the people I interviewed had time to develop their response. I also reached out to some Americans from a book Discord server which basically makes them the perfect interviewees for the subject given that Discord is a social platform to begin with.

How often do you read ?

“ I read just about every day. I play audiobooks roughly 6-8 hours a day while I work. ”

“ I try to read at least 20-30 minutes everyday. ”

“ J'essaye de lire une bonne heure au moins 2 fois par semaine quand je suis plus libre ! ”

My first interview guide helped me realize that I had to redefine my choice of users. At first, I had targeted readers in the book community as a whole but what I didn’t think about is that there are different types of readers.

Would you be interested in meeting other readers or participating in a book club ?

“ Ça pourrait être cool ne serait-ce que pour être motivé à lire plus souvent ”

“ Probably not unless I get into reading a lot more. Maybe I would because I've never done it before so just to try something new but I wouldn't do it alone, I'd do it with a friend. ”

The issue in my first sampling was interviewing people who don’t have a particular interest in reading or used to be avid readers in their early years, though it did provide an insight on what could potentially motivate them. So from those readers, I aimed to find out if a buddy read would do just that.

Do you have friends or family with whom you can discuss books with ?

I then realized my questions were too broad and focused my second interview guide on learning about their reader’s social life. Generally they didn’t have anyone to vent about books with, or only very few close people and if it wasn’t something they were actively looking for, they weren’t completely closed to the idea and actually thought it could help them take up reading again.

“ Sometimes I recommend books to others, some read them but don't really talk about it with me. A week ago I read a book that I got from a friend who had read it. I said what I thought of it but the only response I got was “I'm glad you enjoyed the book" so I couldn't really discuss it. ”

Would you be interested in meeting readers with similar tastes and reading goals as you?

“ J’ai parfois l’impression que les sous textes des livres que je lis m’échappent et c’est assez frustrant. Si quelqu’un pouvait compléter mon raisonnement ce serait idéal. ”

“ Ça permet de remettre en question notre interprétation, et puis c'est aussi très chouette de pouvoir partager son point de vue avec quelqu'un qui est intéressé et qui comprend de quoi on parle. ”

“ I definitely would love finding a community of people where people can share their love for books and such. ”

So now that I’ve established that buddy reading is something that’s sought out by many amongst the book community, I drew up new questions aimed at readers who are looking to connect with others. In my third and final guide I aimed to identify which features readers would enjoy in a buddy reading app.

The plot thickens - keep reading to find out more.

What can be improved in existing apps ?

Goodreads

Basic messaging system without modern features (that you would expect from a messaging app such as read receipts, real-time typing indicators or the ability to search for previous conversations)
Overwhelming notification system, can be tricky to keep up with the important ones
Not many customizable buddy reading features
Outdated design and poor UI
Not enough variety in the book recommendations
Amazon-owned, they’ve turned the app into a highly personalized storefront
Buddy reads are set up in public groups with moderators so there’s no 1 on 1 contact

Goodreads

Fable

Impersonal profile
No web version
Limited social features
Joining existing book clubs can be intimidating for newcomers
Average engagement even for clubs with thousands of members
Not completely free. Many book clubs are premium (Featured Clubs moderated by celebrities or known BookTokkers are locked behind a paywall.)

Fable

Storygraph

Impersonal profile, there is no personal information beyond their book preferences
Buddy read feature not intuitive and difficult to navigate. (Need to change privacy settings to be able to receive invites, no like button on comments, must update reading progress before comments are revealed…)
Limited book database
Limited social features
Book recommendations not very accurate
Desktop only
Small community, no API tie-ins to other social media platforms

Storygraph

What can be improved in existing apps ?

Fable

Impersonal profile
No web version
Limited social features
Joining existing book clubs can be intimidating for newcomers
Average engagement even for clubs with thousands of members
Not completely free. Many book clubs are premium (Featured Clubs moderated by celebrities or known BookTokkers are locked behind a paywall.)

Storygraph

Impersonal profile, there is no personal information beyond their book preferences
Buddy read feature not intuitive and difficult to navigate. (Need to change privacy settings to be able to receive invites, no like button on comments, must update reading progress before comments are revealed…)
Limited book database
Limited social features
Book recommendations not very accurate
Desktop only
Small community, no API tie-ins to other social media platforms

Goodreads

Basic messaging system without modern features (that you would expect from a messaging app such as read receipts, real-time typing indicators or the ability to search for previous conversations)
Overwhelming notification system, can be tricky to keep up with the important ones
Not many customizable buddy reading features
Outdated design and poor UI
Not enough variety in the book recommendations
Amazon-owned, they’ve turned the app into a highly personalized storefront
Buddy reads are set up in public groups with moderators so there’s no 1 on 1 contact

How can I create a social haven for readers ?

/ 06

The problem with most apps is that after a while their book suggestions lack variety.

That’s why recommendations on BookHive won’t come from an algorithm or a limited pool of books, they will come from the users themselves. They can help each other discover hidden gems that they might not have found otherwise. So the more interactions they have, the more book recommendations they’ll receive from real people who share the same interests.

Let’s start with the communication method.

It’s fairly obvious that there should be a private message function to allow a more personal exchange but my interviewees have also expressed a want for a bigger form of exchange such as forums or groups.

A list is boring. How to make finding the perfect buddy fun ?

A swipe or match system is more engaging and provides a gamified experience.
Quizzes or surveys can help the app suggest potential reading buddies who share similar interests.
A hashtag system that allows users to tag their favorite genres or book titles. Others can then search for those hashtags to find people with similar preferences.
A forum or discussion board allows users to make new friends by allowing them to talk about their favorite books, ask for recommendations, or share their opinions.

We can’t have a social platform without personalized profiles !

This will allow users to get an insight on a potential reading buddy. It will contain all the basic personal information but also their reading preferences (favorite authors/genres/quotes, reading speed, turn offs, TBR list, currently reading list, have read list, current buddy reads, friends count and mutual friends) and what they are looking for in a buddy read.

Or without a feed.

A feed on a social app is an important feature to stay updated on the latest activities of friends and the community but also to engage with others. This can also help to discover new content through friends activities and can offer a space where to share your opinions.

You’ve found a great reading buddy, what now ?

Users can create a buddy read and invite others to join, it will automatically be added to the ongoing buddy reads list of each member. It’s more exciting to share your thoughts on a plot twist as it’s happening instead of waiting until the end of the book so reading buddies will be able to comment as they read. With an option to mark as spoiler, of course.

wireframe with colors of the To Be Read list

wireframe with colors of the messaging system

wireframe with colors of the matching system

wireframe with colors of the app's feed page

wireframe with colors of the current buddy reads page